Tune-sheet feeder.



No. 658,885. Patented Oct. 2, I900.

- J. WELLNEB.

TUNE SHEET FEEDER.

(Application fil ed Dec. 19, 1899.)

(No Model.)

MM Z i jun $414 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

JULIUS WELLNER, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY.

TUNE-SHEET FEEDER.

sPEcIFIcATIoN formingpart of Letters Patent No. 658,885, dated October 2,19oo.

Application filed December 19, 1899. Serial No. 7 0,365- (N0 11105610 To all whont it may concern;

Beit known that I, JULIUS WELLNER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Jersey City Heights, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tune-Sheet Feeders; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to mechanical musical instruments, and has for its object to furnish improved means whereby the tune sheet, which, in combination with the star-wheels, tends to vibrate the teeth in the comb, is made mechanically simple, easily controlled, and cheap to manufacture. In order tomore distinctly specify these means in their operative combination with each other, and as, furthermore, they are combined and mutually coOperative with each other as distinct and separate mechanisms capable of being explained and understood without reference to any of the other parts included in the construction and operation of a mechanical musical instrument, I will mention them in their successive order. Generallyspeaking,myimprovements all relate to the means of conveying the desired tune-sheet into the position it occupies in front of or adjacent to the star-wheels, and in this manner my devices can be specified and divided up into, first, the tune-sheet feeder, which brings the tune-sheet within reach of the elevating means; secondly, the tune-sheet elevator, which catches up the tune-sheet and elevates it to a position tangential to the star- Wheels, and, thirdly and lastly,the tune-sheetlocking means, which While the tune-sheet is being rotated around its axis retains said sheet temporarily in this its operative position.

Inasmuch as mechanical musical instruments have already been known a long time and are well known in the state of the art, having been made the subject of several Letters Patent, I wish it to be understood that my application for Letters Patent has not for its object, either in the description or the claims, any attempt to broadly cover the principles in either of the means set forth in my preamble, but simply to cover the specific means constructed as not having been conceived heretofore to my knowledge, making, of course, due allowance for a certain permissible breadth in language bearing on the use of mechanical elements that are the mecham ical equivalents of each other.

In describing my invention I will call attention to the accompanying drawings, wherein like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different views.

Figure 1 is a front view showing a singlescrew tune-sheet feeder having my improved elevating and locking means attached. Fig. 2 is a side view of the parts as shown in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view of one side of the elevating means as they are seen in Fig. 1, showing additionally the device that operates the locking means from one of the elevating-screws.

In Fig. 1, A indicates one of a series of tune-sheets, in this instance twelve in number, lettered from A to A it being of course understood that any number of sheets can be introduced, such addition of sheets merely depending on how many threads the screws are furnished with and how long or deep the framework is constructed.

B indicates a screw which is shown as secured in the frame 0.

O, as previously stated, indicates the framework supporting my improvements and has four standards, of which the drawings show 0, O ,C*,and 0 These standards support between them guides for keeping the tune-sheets in a true perpendicular position. The said guides are constructed as follows: Two rods D and D secured firmly between the standards, of which rods D is seen attached between O and 0 have each a tube lying around them, each of which tubes has a series of bushes firmly attached to them, so that each tune-disk lies between a pair'of guide-bushes. Taking A as an example, it will be found to lie between F and F on the right side of the frame and behind F and F as seen in Fig. 1. The screw B is secured rotatively in lugs G and 0", said lugs forming part of the bottom (J of the frame 0. The screw B is manipulated by a hand-wheel 0 having a handle and is furnished with twice as many screw-threads as there are disks required, so that, observing Fig. 2, the whole series of tune-sheets from A to A can pass by the elevating means, as indicated by the position of the elevating-screw G Consequently when the screw-handle O is manipulated the whole series of sheets is moved, guided on either side by the bushes F,mounted on the tubes E and E sliding on their respective rods D and D Proceeding now to the description of the elevating means, it will be seen that in the general front view in Fig. 1 they consist. of two perpendicular screw-cut rods G and G whose screw-threads are cut at a very acute angle, the shape of the thread being, as seen in the detail view, Fig. 3, semicircular for the sake of conforming to the antifrictionball G inserted in the bush G Mounted on each of these screws is a bush, respectively, G on G and G? on G. From each of these bushes there protrudes an arm, G from G and G from G Forming a part of these arms (indicated, respectively, as G and G is a grooved tongue, in which grooves the disk that is to be elevated will rest. From each grooved tongue there further protrudes a downwa'rd-inclining arm, G from G and G from G. To the said arms G, G G and G thereare pivoted grooved wheels,which wheels tend to give a frictionless guiding motion to the supports as they move each on a guiding-bar, said guiding-bars indicated by letters H and H these bars being secured to a part of the framework H by means of arms H H H, and H Observing the detail view now for a more complete understanding of the operation of this elevating device, it will be seen that in the case of the bush G lying, as before stated, around the screw G said bush is furnished with a screw G this screw being hollowed out at the inner end, so as to furnish a support for the antifrictionball G The bush itself is of course of a smooth bore,"so that it slides readily up and down the rod G The guiding-wheels attached to this disk-support are G on the arm G and G on the arm G The two screws G and G referring back to Fig. 1, are suitably secured in the framework and are connected operatively by two pairs of miter-gears, of which I and I are mounted, respectively, on the top end of G and G and I and I on the connecting-rod 1 the latter being secured to the upper part of the framework by bearings 1 and 1 If new any kind of motive power he applied to the pulley 1 secured to the bottom end of screw G a rotary motion will be given to the said screw G and transmitted by the above-described miter-gear system to G. As the screws G and G respectively, are cut as right and left screws, it will be apparent that the bushes G and G will be carried upward, and in so doing will catch up the disk that happens to lie in alinement with the disk-supports G and G", thereby conveying the said disk to the position in which it will be locked by the means I shall now proceed to describe wiile actuating the starwheels and comb-teeth.

As will have been observed in Fig. 1, the tune-sheet A is furnished with a hole A which hole is destined to be occupied bya pin. This pin was in some of the old mechanical instruments a horizontally-fixed pin, on which by some spring action or other the disk was aiiixed. In my improved locking device the pin is made movable, so that it enters the hole instead of the hole being adjusted to the pin. This is accomplished in the following manner: A bar J has a pin J attached. Said bar is pivoted in brackets J and J secured to the plate J', attached to the standards C and G which standards form part of the frame C. Secured opposite to the pin J on the said plate J is seat J havinga hole J. The bar J has also an arm L protruding rearward, as seen in Fig. 2, and by reasons of the bar J being pivoted in the bearings J and J" it can easily be seen that if an upward movement in the direction of the arrow X be given to said arm L by some power or other the bar J will perform. a rotary motion in the direction of the arrow X and the pin J will pass into the hole J. The means embodying the power giving this mo tion to the arm L are the following: Observing Fig. 3, it will be seen that a cylinder M, suitably secured to the frame 0, has a rod M passing through it. To this rod M there is attached a part M to which is affixed an arm M said arm pivoted at M to the part M The arm M is furnished with a toothrack M meshing with a screw-cut bush N, which bush N is firmly affixed to the screw G Attached to the upper edge of the part M is an arm 0, which cooperates with the arm L of the plate J, as best seen in Fig. 2. lVhen now the rotary motion is given to the screws, the screw G having the screw-cut bush N afiixed to it, meeting with the bushrack M forming part of the arm M and pressed against the bush N by a spring M will elevate the part M and with it the arm 0, which pivoting the bar J around its journals in the bearings J and J will introduce the pin J through the hole A", lying opposite to it, into the hole J of the seat J thus temporarily locking the tune-sheet in its operative position. As soon as the tune-sheet has made one revolution it is caused to stop, when the part M will descend, and in so doing withdraw the pressure from the arm L, which will result in the bar J receding, thus removing the pin J from the hole J, leaving the tune-sheet free to descend.

Having thus described my invention, consisting of a feeding mechanism, utilizing the action of screw-threads as conveying means for tune-sheets having my improved elevating means for conveying the tune-sheetinto its operative position, embracing the two perpendicular screw-cut rods and accessory elements and the adjustable pin-locking device, I would state that it can be readily understood that minor mechanical details could be suggested as improvements in connection with these devices, which, however, would in no way affect my inventive ideas. As an example, a single elevating-screw could with a few changes be constructed to elevate the tune-sheets as well as the two shown in the drawings on the same principle that one horizontal conveying-screw can take the place of the two horizontal conveying-screws. This would only involve such changes as any ordinary mechanically-trained mind could accomplish and would not disturb my inventive principle of elevating the tune -sheets by means of a screw action. That, further, any increase or decrease in the proportions of these means as outlined and described in this specification would infringe on my rights will be apparent.

What I claim, and desire to receive protection for by Letters Patent, is

1-. The combination in a mechanical musical instrument of separate tune-sheets operating the same; a horizontal rod furnished with threads that engage with the edge of the tune-sheets, and arms attached to and operated by vertical screw-cut rods substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. The combination in a mechanical musical instrument of the tune-sheets operating the same; with one or more screws moving and guiding said tune-sheets by means of direct engagement between the screw-threads and edge of sheet, means for steadying the circumference of the tune-sheets, and screw-cut elevating-rods, each having an arm attached to and operated by it substantially as and for the purposes described.

3. In a mechanical musical instrument,separate tune-sheets for operating the same, one or more horizontal screws conveying said tune-sheets to their elevating position by means of direct engagement between the screw-threads and tune-sheet edges, one or more perpendicular screws having means attached for elevating the tune-sheets to their lockin g position, substantially as and for the purposes described.

4. In a mechanical musical instrument separate tune-sheets for operating the same, means for conveying the tune-sheets to their elevating position substantially as described, one or more perpendicular elevating-screws, screw-actuated arms with antifriction-bearings for supporting the tune-sheets attached to said screws, a locking-bar operated by means attached to one of the elevating-screws substantially as described.

5. In a mechanical musical instru ment with separate tune-sheets for operating the same, the combination of means conveying the said tune-sheets to and from their elevating position with a screw-cut elevating rod or rods, and means for engaging the edges of the tunesheets for elevating the same attached to and operatedby said screw-cut rod or rods substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 8th day of December, A. D. 1899.

JULIUS WELLNER.

WVitnesses:

PERCY L. GALLAGHER, Aucus'r- M. TRESOHOW. 

